1 DECEMBER 1838, Page 8

Ministerial difficulties, and the reception prepared for Lord DUR- HAM

at Court, have supplied topics for newspaper discussion these some days. A late assertion of the Standard, that Ministers intended to convene Parliament on the 4th or Zith of December, had been con- tradicted by the Chronicle, but not until several days after it appeared ; and the Standard last night affirms that it had "ascertained that the statement was strictly correct" at the time—that such was the inten- tion "until it was understood that Lord DURHAM would come to Eng- land without delay." The Ministerial newspapers have not denied this, and have scarcely noticed the long prorogation. Their silence confirms the impression that Lord DURHAM'S sudden return discon- certed the Ministers : it would have been more convenient to have commenced the session in his absence.

The Globe on Thursday put forth a report that Lord DURHAM would reside at Brussels till the opening of Parliament. Connecting this with the proximity to King LEOPOLD, the Standard last night descants on the mischief of foreign influence in the affairs of England, and the danger to the Crown of attempting to govern this country virtually by France, through the medium of LEOPOLD. If the Standard appre- bended an intrigue at the English Court to bring Lord DURHAM promi- nently forward in a new Liberal Ministry, our astute contemporary fell into an error. The Post was nearer the mark yesterday morning, in stat. mg, that Lord DURHAM is "not to be a cherished guest at Windsor or Brighton," and that he "will not be specially received by her Majesty that what strict etiquette demands, and no more, of admission to the presence of the Sovereign, will be allowed him." The Post has evi- dently an inkling of a certain despatch, written on the receipt of the last Proclamation of the Governor-General, for the purpose of being produced to the Tories in Parliainent--conveying the expression of her Majesty's high displeasure ; as also, of the tutoring the Queen has received to greet her High Commissioner with haughty coldness, amounting to insult. Lord DURHAM is likely to have ample proof of what the Spectator told him a twelvemonth ago, that the wily Favourite bad " turned the key of the closet" upon hint.